All The Pretty Corpses
by HarlequinRaven
Summary: They danced together in the blood of the Named. Their armies swept across the world, a cursed plague, bringing death where life had once resided. This is the present. This is the future. Chaos reigns supreme. Lathenia/Marduke, AU, oneshot.


_**All The Pretty Corpses**_

_Summary: They danced in the blood of the Named. Their armies swept across the world, a cursed plague, bringing death where life had once resided. This is the present. This is the future. Chaos reigns supreme. Lathenia x Marduke, AU, oneshot._

_For the purposes of this fanfic, Rochelle never had a curse put on her. So when Marduke killed her, he didn't turn to stone and thus was able to kill Ethan._

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"All the pretty corpses they will sing to you in praise,  
Screaming out atrocities in keys that have no name,  
Darling, turn me inside out, destroy me just for fun,  
Curse my generations, dear, together we shall burn."

- Schoolyard Heroes, _All The Pretty Corpses_

oOo

Winning. An intense feeling.

_Knowing _that she had won. Even better. She had _always_ known she would reign supreme and here in front of her was the proof. All that she had ever dreamed of. The battle was over, but the chaos was just beginning. The whole world would bow down to her rule and her name would be whispered in fear around the world. There was nothing that could stop her now. Her path of destruction would be swift and fierce. Anyone who opposed her would be cut down and silenced with no more effort than a sheaf of barley being sliced by the silver gleam of a reaper. That was who she was. The goddess of death. And _he_ was her reaper.

Marduke emerged from the green canopy of trees, and sank to his knees at her feet.

"It is done, my beautiful goddess." Though his appearance to any mortal would be disturbing, Lathenia barely noticed it anymore. _They_ had paid for their mistake. For thinking that they could kill her soulmate with no repercussions. Lathenia's lips turned upwards in a smirk, and Marduke's followed. Lathenia curled her finger, gesturing for Marduke to stand.

Lathenia followed his face with her eyes as he did so, and his eyes never left hers.

"They are dead?" She rose her eyebrow in anticipation.

"They are dead." Marduke turned her question into a statement, his eyes gleaming with death and glee.

"Well done, my love." Lathenia turned away from Marduke, who turned to stand at her side. They were all dead. _Death,_ thought Lathenia. _Such a lovely word._

She fixed her eyes especially on the Named. Arkarian, the constant thorn in her side, lay in front of her. His body was twisted and broken, pools of blood on his arms and legs from long gashes with a sword. His eyes were open, glassy and unseeing. Lathenia kicked him sharply with her heel for good measure and heard a rib crack. She smiled.

Arkarian was lying over his soulmate, Isabel. His last act to protect her. _How extraordinarily poetic, _thought Lathenia mockingly. _Didn't do her very much good. _She was lying under him, a large silver spear sticking out of her side in a very awkward position. Blood was still drying at the corner of her mouth.

_All the dead soldiers._ Lathenia thought with easy gleefulness. But she needed to see him. She needed to see the broken, dead body of the one who had killed her Marduke, who had marred his features even more until they were barely recognisable.

"Bring him to me." she spat, with venom poisoning her goddess-like voice.

Marduke knew who she meant at once.

"It's not a pretty sight." he said, though all the while smiling sadistically with broken, yellowed teeth.

"Good." said Lathenia appreciatively. As far as she was concerned, no scars, no wounds, no amount of blood spilt could ever be enough to appease her and make up for the harm that had been done.

Marduke laughed cruelly, and lumbered away into the forest, followed by two soldiers of the Order.

Lathenia looked around at the ruins that surrounded her. Bodies, everywhere, piling up with blood and death. Lathenia's two favourite things, after chaos and Marduke. In complete contrast to this, the Citadel stood completely unscathed, but it had now taken on a ghostly look, callously so, as if it knew who controlled it now. Lathenia gave a crooked smile at this. She controlled it. She controlled _everything._ And there was not a soul on Earth to stand in her way.

As her eyes gazed appreciatively over the crowded battlefields, her soldiers mixed with the ever more numerous bodies of the Guard's, she noticed her brother, Lorian. Oh, how she had enjoyed that! His death had been the sweetest. His face as her dagger plunged into his side! The great and noble Lorian; put in his place at last. With his death, the walls between worlds had crumbled, all realms bleeding together, mixing, the perfection of chaos that Lathenia so loved. Demons surrounded her, bowing to her will, waiting for her command, which she gave in a powerful, beautiful voice, full of cruel laughter.

"Go. Kill _anything_ that stands in your way. Spread chaos far and wide, so that all worlds will know my name and hide in fear!"

The roar from her troops was massive and ear-splitting as they raised their lethal, blood-stained weapons in the air and howled for more blood. The earth pounded as demons and humans alike ran across the worn surfaces, trampling on broken bodies that cracked under their feet in their blood and death-fuelled mayhem.

Lathenia cackled, as through the crowd of monsters, most that names could not describe, she spied the large form of her lover, carrying with no fragility whatsoever, a limp human-shaped form. The two soldiers were right behind him, one carrying another body, the body of _his_ soulmate, Rochelle. Her arms were horribly out of joint, with a golden arrow sticking out of her side.

Lathenia clapped her hands in anticipation. She wanted to see _him_.

"Bring him to me." she said, like a child being given a birthday present.

"Surprise." Marduke's low voice boomed through the throng of howls from the maniacal crowd of the Order.

Marduke unceremoniously dropped the body of Ethan onto the ground, where it thumped loudly.

Lathenia narrowed her eyes at it. The body wasn't nearly destroyed _enough_. Lathenia's eyes flickered icily as she used her power. Ethan's body rose up into the air opposite Lathenia, looking like a limp toy doll. His face was pale and ghostly white. Lathenia's will made a spear rip out of a soldier's dead form and plunge into Ethan's stomach. There was no blood though, for Ethan's heart was no longer beating. Lathenia growled, annoyed. Ethan's body suddenly dropped to the ground, where Lathenia heard his neck break with a satisfying snap. She turned to Marduke.

"I thought you said you'd killed him." she growled.

"I...I did, my love." Marduke said, clearly puzzled.

"No, you _ended his life_." said Lathenia, looking dangerous.

Marduke's puzzlement only increased. Lathenia slapped Marduke full across what was left of his face, without blinking once. Marduke didn't lift a hand to his face, aware that would only anger her more. In a second, Lathenia's demeanour changed. She caressed Marduke's face where she had hit it with long, pale fingers and Marduke looked at her lovingly. He was not angry at her in the slightest. He worshipped her chaotic and volatile nature. She was his goddess.

"I wanted you to kill him for what he did to you." Lathenia pulled Marduke closer to her and turned his head sharply to face the same way as hers, looking at Ethan's body. "I wanted you to hurt him, like he hurt you...and me." Lathenia whispered into Marduke's ear.

Marduke's face had remained the same during Lathenia's words, until she said _'and me'_. No one hurt Lathenia while Marduke was around. He roared, fantastically loud, and sprung from Lathenia's embrace, while she smirked, pleased. He lifted Ethan's body in one hand easily in his rage and threw it across the battleground, where it crashed against a tree and fell uselessly to the ground once again.

Marduke's breathing was heavy. He was still enraged and made to go after Ethan's form, more than ready to inflict more damage to it, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Lathenia's hand. Marduke's head turned and he looked into the loving gaze of his goddess. He took the hand that rested on his shoulder and turned to face her.

Lathenia's emotions were being taken to new heights this day. Tempestuous as a storm, they reached their highest point yet, and she wanted Marduke. In _all_ ways. Right now, she wanted to dance with him in their glory and triumph while the demons drank the blood that would pour from the Guard like wine.

Together they would dance into a perfect eternity filled with chaos and uncertainty, a world they would rule together. This was what made Lathenia unstoppable. She didn't have a master plan. All she wanted was _chaos, _in any shape or form.

Marduke turned Lathenia in a fast whirl, her hair whipping around sharply. They were free and wild, two untameable forces, perfectly united with each other. They danced to a beat only they could hear, while Lathenia worked, her power raising the bodies of the Named above them, circling them in an eerie dance, each pair of soulmates united in an unearthly tango, their bones cracking together as they moved in unusual ways, forced out of the boundaries of rigor mortis.

Marduke's eyes were locked with Lathenia's, fire burning between them, scorching, though not even fire could hurt Lathenia now. She was invincible. Their aura was pulsing as they whirled in their deadly dance, the ghostly forms of the Named mimicking their movements, revelling with the Order in their victory like the puppets they now were, bending to Lathenia's will.

Blood poured out of their invisible wounds, cut new with Lathenia's rage and powerful fury that was so hot it could burn a hole in the Earth. Chaos was rampant in the victory grounds, with glorious death and power encircling the Immortal and her lover. The wind howled with them, giving sound to their movements and strength to their magic. The trees trembled with the sheer indomitable force of the elements Lathenia and Marduke were moving.

They were locked in their indecipherable dance, forever secured in a furious battle that ended in lust and an undeniable connection. The two souls were one for eternity, bound together with ties that could not be cut. An eternity that would be filled with Lathenia's rage, chaos, and power.

The souls could be seen from all corners of the Earth that night, the power felt _everywhere_. The bodies glowed with the furious light of Lathenia and Marduke. The strength of it made mortals tremble. This was the end of humanity.

The gods had come out to play.

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_Okay. I may have gone slightly overboard with the angst, but I don't care. It's an angsty fic. :)_

_KTJ, you should like it, lol. Angst and blood abound. xD_

_Reviews are appreciated. :)_

_Raven. x_


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